Did faulty Jesus Nut cause Hudson River Helicopter Crash? Aviation experts explore how a vital fitting bolt may have come apart mid-air, leading to a tour chopper crashing below, killing a family of 5 from Spain and the pilot.
An aviation expert has cited a faulty ‘Jesus nut’ which holds the entire rotor system of a chopper together – as being the cause of being the cause of a deadly NYC helicopter crash that sent a family of 5 touring from Spain along with the chopper pilot to their deaths after the craft broke apart mid-air and plummeted into the Hudson River on Thursday.
It comes as aviation expert, Julian Bray suggested that a faulty ‘Jesus nut’ – which holds the entire rotor system of a helicopter together – described as the ‘main rotating nut or mast nut’ could have been behind the tragedy.
NYC chopper broke mid-air after main rotor became unwound
Agustín Escobar, the president of the Spanish branch of Siemens, and his family had only arrived in the city earlier in the day on Thursday before the fatal crash that very afternoon.
Escobar, his wife, Merce Camprubi Montal, and their children, aged four, five, and 11 years old, were all killed alongside the pilot, aged 36. The tour of lower Manhattan by air was supposed to be a ‘once in a lifetime’ experience and birthday gift to one of the couple’s three children along with to the mom who had just turned 40.
Discussing the possible cause of the Bell 206 helicopter breaking apart and plummeting into the Hudson River below, Bray suggested that the faulty ‘Jesus nut’ would have caused the helicopter blades to break free from the rotor while still in motion.
As it detached, the spinning blades would then have ripped through the body of the chopper before it crashed into the water below, Bray told The Sun.
Footage showed the tragic moment the helicopter plunged into the Hudson River, as the spinning blades were seen falling separately from the main body of the aircraft.
The Bell 206 chopper was also seen breaking in half before making contact with the water.
Bray told the Sun: ‘What appears to have happened with this particular helicopter is that the rotor, the main rotor… had detached, because in one video we see the blades spinning away from the helicopter.’
‘But this appears to have sliced through the back half of the helicopter, so the fuselage then drops like a stone into the river Hudson right opposite Pier 41.’
Was the Jesus Bolt properly serviced?
‘There is a particular procedure which has to be checked every time it’s serviced, and it’s known as the Jesus Bolt… because without that the whole thing falls apart.’
‘It looks as though it’s [the] Jesus bolt or Jesus PIN… It’s either defective or wasn’t tightened up, or for some reason it sheared,’ Bray added.
The term ‘Jesus nut’ or ‘Jesus bolt’ was most likely coined during the Vietnam War — referring to the fact that if it happened to detach, the only thing the crew could do was pray to Jesus, according to Technology.org.
The chopper’s rotors are still missing, the National Transportation Safety Board said at a press conference Friday.
The chopper was seen crashing into the murky waters of the Hudson River, closer to the New Jersey side, at around 3.15pm.
‘From the footage, it appears that the main rotor struck the body of the helicopter, cutting off the tail of the helicopter, which created an unrecoverable event,’ former military aviator and attorney Jim Brauchle of Motley Rice LLC told the dailymail.
‘The two main causes of this phenomenon are mechanical failure or excessive pilot maneuvering. Still, a full investigation is needed to understand why this tragedy occurred.
‘Having previously represented the families of tourists killed during a helicopter tour over the Hudson River, my heart goes out to the families at this catastrophic time.’
A ‘catastrophic mechanical failure’ left the pilot with no chance to save the helicopter, said Justin Green, an aviation lawyer who was a helicopter pilot in the Marine Corps.
It is possible the helicopter’s main rotors struck the tail boom, breaking it apart and causing the cabin to free fall, Green said.
‘They were dead as soon as whatever happened happened,’ Green said. ‘There’s no indication they had any control over the craft. No pilot could have prevented that accident once they lost the lifts. It’s like a rock falling to the ground. It’s heartbreaking.’
New York Helicopter had previous mechanical failure
Michael Roth, 71, who owns New York Helicopter which provided the tour and the chopper, said the aircraft was running out of fuel before it crashed.
‘He [the pilot] called in that he was landing and that he needed fuel, and it should have taken him about three minutes to arrive, but 20 minutes later, he didn’t arrive,’ Roth said during a press conference.
Roth said he was devastated by the crash and agreed with other experts that the video appears to show the main rotor blades had broken off.
‘The only thing I know by watching a video of the helicopter falling down, that the main rotor blades weren’t on the helicopter,’ he added.
‘And I haven’t seen anything like that in my 30 years being in business, in the helicopter business. The only thing I could guess – I got no clue – is that it either had a bird strike or the main rotor blades failed. I have no clue. I don’t know.’
The sentiments follow a report stating that NY Helicopter had mechanical issues in the recent past. Records show the doomed chopper was built in 2004 and had already logged 12,728 hours of flight time when it was forced into repair as recently as September.
Asked to discuss how often the helicopter was inspected or how recently, Roth declined, instead saying, ‘We follow all the rules and more.’
The helicopter was issued an airworthiness certificate in 2016 that was valid through 2029, records show.
